Tileset advice needed.

[Bonk]

Hey, everyone.
I've been working on a retro styled tileset for a little while, and I thought I'd post it here and ask for advice. Please ignore the mapping, as well. It was only a throw-together to show how things could look. It's a first attempt and very far from completion, so go easy.


It's basic, I haven't added much detail yet (Like windows or broken bricks). The grass I used is the long grass, I'm not sure if I'm going to make some short-cropped turf. I also think the trees are a little too vibrant… Anyway, post your opinions, it needs a lot of improvement.

[Beanie93]

Grass is fine, it's just that I can see the grid. Same with the dirt; trees' tops are okay, I guess, but I don't think those trunks are shaded properly… but it's nice, better than anything I could do. :)

[Bonk]

Okay, minor update; though not many changes.

I haven't worked on the grass or dirt track yet, but I've had a stab at re-colouring the trees and altering parts of the trunk. There's also arched windows in the wall. I might even make them see-through. Hmm…


[zade_o]

The sharp corners in the grass are bothersome. Also the building at the bottom doesn't make very much sense, it's too flat compared to the angle of the rest of the graphics. You need some form of roof tiles for the building.

[Bonk]

It was meant to be a wall, actually. I suppose if I make the windows transparent it would look like one?

[zade_o]

Ok, so then are those top 2 rows of blocks supposed to be the top of the wall? If that's the case something is off about em and they make the wall seem paper thin.

[Bonk]

I've darkened them up and widened them slightly. The windows are see through, as well.


[Beanie93]

The trunks look better, but still need some work. And I got to agree with Ghost; the wall looks flat.

[Bonk]

Okay, I had a thought about the ground, and decided on a more Super Mario Brothers/generic Gameboy RPG style. I need your thoughts on the grass and path. Here it is:


I'm feeling a little more detail is needed on the path, but it's meant to be simplistic. Ah, well.

[Murdoc]

The path looks more like a hill because all the crossovers are from top down. If I were you id just go for a more simple approach on the path. The grass looks excellent imo.

Edit: Also the reason the trunks dont look right is because they curve in too quickly.. they should ascend up into the tree almost parallel, naturally. Something like this:


[Bonk]

I see what you mean about the path. I'm going to try a few ideas out with that one. Also, thanks about the grass, it's a simple technique but it looks quite effective. You should probably know that TOA was a massive inspiration behind this. I'm not humping your leg here, but those graphics are truly awesome.

[Murdoc]

@Bonk:

> I see what you mean about the path. I'm going to try a few ideas out with that one. Also, thanks about the grass, it's a simple technique but it looks quite effective. You should probably know that TOA was a massive inspiration behind this. I'm not humping your leg here, but those graphics are truly awesome.

thanks. i made quite a few tilesets before I settled on that one for Tales of Alderon. i'm quite happy with it .. i had orginally planned to do it in higher res, but the old school 16x16 resized to 32x32 made me nostalgiac

[Bonk]

Okay, final update of the night.


I'm pretty happy with this one, but again, any thoughts are welcome :)

[zade_o]

Ah that wall looks much better! and now one last suggestion for it, slant the top so it has distinguishable depth. Here's a quick example of what I mean.

[Murdoc]

@Bonk:

> Okay, final update of the night.
>
> 
>
> I'm pretty happy with this one, but again, any thoughts are welcome :)

The path looks good, but try adding some highlight… maybe just a hint on the lightsource side... the lightsource is weak so its hard to tell where the sun is actually shining. since the sun is coming in from 9oclock angle (from the look of the trees) i would maybe add some highlight to the left side of those pebbles on the road to give them more dimension, as well as depth.

[Octohunter]

When I first looked at this thread, I thought, "Hey, Moonvale tiles!"
I like the newest one, though the dirt seems a bit off; maybe add a few extra oval things to fill in some of those empty spaces.

[Bonk]

Okay, I hilighted the left side of the pebbles and slanted the top of the wall. I also removed the second layer of bricks, it looked too wide. It also needed darkening in the inside of the window. I tried adding more pebbles, but in the end it looked too cluttered.
Here's the wall, grass and path:

[zade_o]

Alright this is starting to look much better. I actually really like the grass and the dirt path. My only suggestion would be make a dirt path tile that has an extra rock, or even 2 separate tiles with rocks of different sizes in different positions and then place that tile in random spots on the dirt path. It adds variation and makes the ground more natural.

You missed some details on the wall though, the edges where the opening are have no depth now!

If you don't get what I mean I can create an example later today.

This is starting to look nice though! Good job!

[Bonk]

Okay, another update. I altered the tree trunks, changed the wall end and window, and made some new dirt tiles for variation.

Here we are:

I might use a more simplistic tree style. I think the flowers need a change, too. I'm looking into that next.

[evilbunnie]

The walls look like they're ontop of everything, the perspective is.. well screwed.

[zade_o]

Now that I look at it, the wall make look weird because of lighting. The top would be light and the face would be dark. And the left edge of the windows would be dark as well.

[Byson]

The tiles are looking a lot better than how they started, however, the starters were good for a first attempt. The only quibble I have now is the graphic clash. The genre you now seem to have selected is very retro/8-Bit…...The castle walls, however, are very modern in style and detail....plans to simplify these may also need to be taken into consideration :)

[zade_o]

I think all he would need to do to fix that is a hue adjustment of somesort. The grass and sand seems to have a lot more saturation in comparison to the wall, the wall seems more drained and realistic because of that.

[Bonk]

So the wall needs to be darker at the front, lighter on top and a tad more retro? Also, tufts of grass along the bottom of the wall might look better (Yet again, opinions needed)… I'll have a look into it.

[Bonk]

Okay, minor bump here, sorry.

Here's a screenshot with two versions of the wall, both have been colour-sorted, one has less detail than the other. I'm leaving the decision to you guys, I'm not sure.


I'm going to make a few modifications to the grass so It doesn't show half of the pattern on the tile edge.